1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a suspension comprising a microactuator mounting section used in a disk drive for an information processing apparatus, such as a personal computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
A hard disk drive (HDD) is used in an information processing apparatus, such as a personal computer. The hard disk drive comprises a magnetic disk rotatable about a spindle, a carriage turnable about a pivot, etc. The carriage is powered by a positioning motor, such as a voice coil motor. A suspension is mounted on an arm of the carriage. The suspension comprises a load beam, a flexure superposed on the load beam, etc. A slider, which constitutes a magnetic head, is mounted on a gimbal portion formed near the distal end of the flexure. The slider is provided with elements (transducers) for accessing data, that is, for reading or writing data.
In order to overcome the increase in the recording density of disks, the magnetic head needs to be accurately positioned relative to the recording surface of each disk. To attain this, a dual-stage-actuator DSA) suspension has been developed that combines a positioning motor (voice coil motor) and microactuator. Examples of the DSA suspension are disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publications Nos. 2001-307442 (Patent Document 1) and 2002-50140 (Patent Document 2).
The microactuator is located near a base section of the suspension. The microactuator is formed of, for example, a piezoelectric element of lead zirconate titanate (PZT) or the like. The distal end of the suspension can be finely moved at high speed in a sway direction, that is, transversely relative to tracks by the microactuator.
Examples of a head supporting mechanism (DSA suspension) are shown in FIGS. 1 to 13 of Patent Document 1 and FIGS. 6 to 8 of Patent Document 2. A microactuator mounting section of the suspension is disposed between a mount (baseplate) and load beam. The microactuator element of PZT is disposed on the microactuator mounting section. U-shaped arm portions are formed individually on opposite sides of the microactuator mounting section. If a voltage is applied to the microactuator element, the microactuator element is deformed. Thereupon, the arm portions bend, and the magnetic-head of the suspension is displaced in the sway direction.
In the DSA suspensions disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2, the U-shaped arm portions project individually from the opposite sides of the microactuator mounting section. When the suspension is handled, therefore, the U-shaped arm portions may be deformed by contacting their surrounding members. Further, the DSA suspension comprising the U-shaped arm portions still needs to be improved in impact resistance and vibrational characteristics.